When Worlds Collide
by princess-sunshine2003
Summary: A bit of fantastical fluff in which a Jedi Master from the Galactic Alliance ends up, somehow, in Tortall after the war with Scanra. Kel, Neal, and an OC. R&R and I may write more!
1. Lost in Tortall

When Worlds Collide  
Deep in her healing trance, Lydia didn't realize that she was not where she thought she was. Only when she hit the ground with a sickening thud did she come out of her trance enough to feel pain. And despite her Jedi discipline, she was knocked unconscious by the magnitude of the pain.   
Slowly, Kel, Lady Knight Keladry of Mindelan, dismounted from her temperamental gelding Peachblossom, to inspect the figure lying prone in the middle of the jousting field. Surprised to find that it was, in fact, a body, she immediately called her close friend, and a healer over.   
"Neal! Quick, I think she might've broken her back!" A team of healers placed her on a stretcher and bore her away. Kel abandoned the joust to follow, concerned about the unknown girl.   
Inside a private tent, Neal, Sir Nealan of Queenscove, set to work peeling the sweaty, bloody, grimy clothes away from the girl's slim body. He made a face. "She might be a slave," he commented. "This is barely more than sackcloth, and it's filthy! Hardly hygienic."  
He bit off his next words with a hiss of both rage and sympathy. Against the pale skin of the girl's torso were long burn lines, like someone had whipped her with fire. He called on his healing Gift and reached out a green-glowing hand to smooth the burns away.   
The girl's eyes sprang open before he even got close. She babbled something that neither of them understood. Then she tried to sit up and winced in pain. Kel gently urged her back down. Studying the green eyes, she realized that the girl wasn't afraid of them, though she couldn't know that they were trying to help.   
"Stay still. Neal's going to fix you up quick," Kel soothed. She knew that a calm voice quieted most animals, and it worked on people too, as far as her experiences had taught her. "You'll be good as new in a while. So lie still and rest."   
"Rest?" The girl's voice was musical, and it slowed Neal down a bit. "I have done nothing but rest since I returned from my mission on Haruun Kal. I have had all the rest a body can take in a lifetime." She said the words slowly, as if thinking about the meaning of each one before she said it, and Kel was hit by a sudden flash of insight.   
"You're reading my mind, stealing our language from my head."   
"Not steal. Learning. I am not as telepathic as you think. Please, do not touch me. You do not know what is wrong."   
"I'm a healer," Neal snapped. "I'll fix whatever is wrong."   
"I, too, am a healer, and I have spent the better half of this century learning my healer's arts. Let me fix myself."   
"Look, you're lucky you didn't break your back when you fell! I'm going to fix your- did you say half a century?" Lydia sat up, this time without the wince of pain. While Neal and Kel and she had been debating her condition, she'd applied serious healing to her broken ribs, fractured wrist and burns.   
"I said fifty years. Almost fifty years, anyway." She placed a hand against the burns. "You are angry about these. I can feel it."   
"Who did that?"   
"My Master. I was stupid. He showed me. I learned." She shrugged as if they were nothing more than mosquito bites. "He is the one in the bacta tank now," she said without even a hint of pride.   
Neal was shaking with wrath now. Slavery was illegal in the Eastern Lands. And this girl spoke of the beating her master had given her as though it were nothing. She was obviously delirious, thinking she was someone else. There was no way she could be any older than fourteen.   
Yet, she'd fallen from the sky. Perhaps she had slipped off an invisible dragon? He tried to calm himself. She was looking at him with large, solemn green eyes, deeper and more clear than his own.   
"Anger will consume you," she said softly. "Control it. Release it from your body, or it will turn you from light to dark." Her voice was soft and soothing. Her hands were folded neatly in her lap. She pulled her tunic from his lap and pulled it back on.   
"Those burns will become infected if you don't let me heal them," he protested. She smiled and both he and Kel were struck by how wise she looked.   
"They do not need healing," she said, pulling the cloth back to show them. The black flesh was gone, replaced by pink skin, only slightly raised. "I have tended to my wounds." She stood and a metallic cylinder clattered to the ground. At first glance, Kel thought it was a dagger, but she saw no handle. Neal picked it up and turned it over in his hands.   
"What is this?"   
"It is the weapon of a Jedi Knight," the girl said softly.   
"This is a weapon?"   
"It is my lightsaber." Neal bit his lip to keep from laughing out loud. Lydia held out her hand and with a small Force tug, the hilt leapt from his hands to thunk into her palm with its comforting weight. She pressed her thumb over the activation plate and the ice-silver blade shot out. It was dual phase, like her father's friend Corran Horn. If she twisted the handle, the blade would shoot out another meter, thinning, and turn cobalt. She never used it indoors, under penalty of disappointment from her father. The two knights stared at the light in surprise.   
"Is that a sword?"   
"It is, in many ways similar to a metal blade. However, it can shear right through metal. Even duristeel, or durocrete. I built it five years ago, when I turned forty." She lifted her thumb away and tucked the hilt back into her overrobe.   
"You aren't from around here, are you?" Kel asked then.   
"I'm not entirely sure where 'here' is, to be honest," Lydia replied.   
"Well, here is Tortall."   
"I have never heard of this planet," Lydia said thoughtfully.   
"No, it's a country, not a planet."   
"Oh. Are you an ambassador, than?"   
"No, I'm a knight. My name is Kel. This is my friend Neal."   
"I am Jedi Master Lydia Verim. It is my pleasure to make your acquaintance." 


	2. Meeting Royalty

When Worlds Collide  
  
Lydia shook her hair out of its elaborate knot and sighed in relief. The pins had been digging into her head and pulling her long hair. She sank into the pool of cool water and held her breath. A few small bubbles of air escaped her lips as she swam, recalling the vast seas on her home planet of Arcadia. She barely remembered her home from her childhood, but subsequent visits since then, and powerful visions helped her piece together the planet that her people called home.  
  
The pond was much smaller than those great seas, but the temperature was right. She cleaned her hair and body, letting the grime float away. She eyed the pile of cloth that was the traditional garb of a Jedi and finally reached out to drag the garments into the water with her.  
  
As she rinsed out her clothes, Lydia thought about her new surroundings. Without any idea how she'd arrived or even where she actually was, she was lost as to how to return. Surely someone would find her, but she couldn't even begin to guess when. She could try a Force-call, but she had no real bond with anyone but Rinoa. And Rinoa's skills were desperately needed to win the war.  
  
As she floated beside the large rocks she'd laid her clothes out on, she let her mind follow ideas to their conclusions.  
  
_ If I call to Rinoa, it will distract her from the war, but she'll tell Kyp. Kyp will want to tell Luke and Mara, who will insist on informing Zekk. And my dear friend will be adamant that I be found and rescued, preferably with him leading the rescue team._ She sighed and sat up, letting the water engulf her once more. _But if they can't find me- there are a lot of planets, after all- then he'll insist that they divert more resources towards finding me, which takes the Jedi from the war, and I cannot allow that. So I should keep myself small until someone calls after me. And I should study the stars to see if I can find out where exactly I am.  
_  
That decided, Lydia resurfaced and hoisted herself onto the large rock, squeezing water from her hair. Then she pulled on her quasi-clean clothes and redid the heavy curls in their complex knot at the base of her skull, making sure the pins would hold the hair but not gouge her scalp.  
  
She turned, sensing the approach of someone and waited with her hands at her sides. Her face broke into a small smile when she recognized the visitor as Kel, the young woman who had apparently rescued her. She bowed, palms flat on her thighs in a sign of respect. Surprise registered on the younger woman's face, but she repeated the gesture perfectly.  
  
"We were afraid you'd drowned," Kel said slowly.  
  
"Drowned? Me? No, Lady Kel. I know better how to swim than I know my own name." She smiled and wiped a drip of water from her neck.  
  
"At any rate, they're starting to serve the meal. I spoke with the etiquette master, and he says he has a seat for you with Neal and his wife, if you don't mind being the dinner companion to my friend Merric."  
  
"If that is convenient, Lady." Lydia didn't care one way or another if she was seated with the high-born or with the dogs. She was ravenous. "Please, show me the way." Kel did so, guiding her through the stretch of woods.  
  
"Oh." Kel stopped suddenly and turned. "Her Highness, Princess Shinkokami would like to see you first."  
  
"By all means," Lydia replied pleasantly, indicating that she would follow Kel. The lady knight led her to the castle keep of Barony Olau and showed her to the prince and princess' suite of rooms. Lydia bowed deeply, hands flat on her thighs and straightened. "Your Highness, how may I be of service?" she asked politely. Glancing around without appearing to, Lydia noticed several shocked faces. She tilted her head slightly to one side. "I beg pardon. Have I offended in some way?"  
  
A young man, standing before the dressing room door frowned at her. "Your bow...did not show proper respect for royalty."  
  
"I must apologize. Your ways and customs are not mine. I know not the difference between your bows of respect as compared to those conveying disrespect," she replied, her voice sharpening. "Where I come from, a small bow given to a leader shows all the respect imaginable. It is how we greet war leaders." Her voice dropped. "It is how I show respect for my Master."  
  
Both the princess and the prince looked shocked and dismayed. Neal, sitting across the room at a desk, looked up. "See! I told you, didn't I? She speaks lightly of so sensitive a subject!"  
  
Confused, Lydia looked at him. "Are teachers not afforded respect here?" she asked curiously. "Even in so different a place as this, is not education a prime component of your society?" Neal flushed.  
  
The dark-haired Prince Roald looked at her. "When you speak of your master, you speak of your teacher?"  
  
"Yes, your Highness," she replied, bowing again. "For nearly ten years, both during the war and before it, he taught me the Jedi's arts, both diplomatic and...well, martial."  
  
"You see, Neal? She didn't mean slavery; she was referring to a teaching master," a dark-haired, dark-eyed woman said, patting the knight-healer's hand. Lydia knew that she was Neal's wife, but couldn't remember her name.  
  
"Slavery? Slavery is illegal in the galaxy," she responded. "Jedi are keepers of the peace, Force-wielders who strive for the greater good. Jedi Founder-Master Luke Skywalker said the old Jedi failed in that respect once; he will not allow it to happen again, especially not now that the Plague sweeps through us."  
  
"You say that your customs are different than ours. Are you not ruled by this Founder-Master you mentioned?" the princess asked, genuinely curious.  
  
"No, your Highness, we are not. The Jedi Knights and various Masters are ruled by a governing council made of both Jedi and political trustees. War heroes, leaders, healers...many species are represented, so the non-humans do not feel threatened. Why, the greatest Jedi healer today is a Mon Calamari female! There is a Barabel on the council, a Sullustan, a Wookie, along with several humans and Master Cilgal." Lydia smiled wryly. "It is a diverse galaxy we live in, and nowhere is that better represented than in the councils of power."  
  
A bell tolled somewhere outside and the princess sighed, rising to her feet. "We must continue this discussion, Mistress Verim. But after the banquet tonight. Tomorrow, perhaps, during the tournaments." Lydia bowed respectfully and stepped aside to allow the royal couple to leave the room before she looked at Kel again.  
  
"Lady Kel, I must admit that I need help to understand this place. Usually, I am briefed before being sent somewhere new, but this sudden trip was unexpected. Might I ask for your help before I end up doing something extraordinarily stupid?" Kel nodded with a smile.  
  
"I was surprised to see you didn't lose your temper when a servant chastised you. Most nobles I know would have demanded satisfaction from him."  
  
"Anger weakens us," Lydia replied evenly. "And it is not honor to prove yourself upon an opponent who has less skill than you." Kel nodded, respect in her level hazel eyes.  
  
"Not many warriors I know see things that way," she remarked thoughtfully. "You are unique, Lydia." 


End file.
